Herd Behavior and Moving Large Bunches of
Cattle
The
first
thing
we
need
to
learn
in order to handle cattle in a less
stressful way is how cattle act in a herd. Unfortunately, this is one
of the hardest things to comprehend because most of us have never seen
cattle acting as a herd. This is because we create so much stress in
moving our cattle from pasture to pasture that we
basically blow the herd instinct out of them. We try to do
things which we conceive make them easier to move which actually causes
a great deal of stress. The very meaning of the word “herd” is a group
of animals which remain together, which is
what we never see. Fortunately, they still do some things on their own
which we can observe to show us the error of our ways. Cattle will
folllow each other with little effort as long as we start them in the
right way, as demonstrated in the following video. These cattle had
come in fresh two weeks before this video was taken. They had never
been through this gate, or into this pasture before, and the dog
"helping" me was just starting out, and deaf on top of it. Even though
she makes several mistakes, the steers not only go through the gate,
but don't scatter after going through.
Most of us want our cattle all going together in
a bunch and drive them from behind. When cattle are scattered in a
pasture, we can create we motion by traveling back and forth in a
straight line across the back of the pasture. However, that is only
to start them not to drive them the whole move. You will notice in
most cases, that moving cattle in this manner if you are going up a
steep hill (or getting closer to the pens, or going through a gate) the
cattle wind up bunching up and slowing down. This is because they don’t like to be pushed into a crowd anymore than
you do and cattle need to have a leader. Fifteen or twenty animals
across the front of three hundred steers is
not a lead. Even if you happen to think it is,
those steers will not remain there for long when you are creating your
motion from the back. When creating motion in this manner you get what
I refer to as “tank track” milling. I have watched cattle being moved in this manner change the “lead” six
times in less than a quarter mile. Rather than going through the gate
on their own, the “herd” stops and people will do a “controlled mill”
by creating motion on one side and moving it to the front and
(hopefully) through the gate.
There
are
different
analogies
to
describe
this situation. The first one
that comes to mind is pushing our trailer instead of pulling it. Wouldn’t it be hard for us to see where we are
going? Yet that is what we are asking our cattle to do. Go forward
blindly and hopefully push the front cattle
with them enough to have a place to go.
Another
analogy
would
be
going
somewhere
in heavy traffic. Imagine
going to the Stockshow in
What makes you think that your cattle can get crowded in like that
without stressing out?
It
is
even
worse
if
you
are moving pairs. Imagine being in a strange
city.
Now that you
have an idea of why your cattle are stressed and don’t hang around
together like a herd should, you can learn how do handle them to make
them a herd. The biggest mistake people make in this is expecting it to
work like magic in only one move. It takes time, and the less you move
your cattle the longer it will take. The more often you move
your
cattle the faster they will begin to act as a herd.
The steers
in
this
picture
were moved three
times before they began grazing together like in this picture.
They were purchased at a sale barn from
several different owners and had no idea they were supposed to be a
herd until they had been handled in a manner that allowed them to feel
as a herd. Notice how all of them are facing the same direction while
grazing? When the herd changes where it is grazing (or decides to
go to water), the lead steer will begin walking. After he leaves, the
rest will follow, but string out in single file to do so. When
he stops to graze, the rest will begin stopping when they reach him.
When you begin moving cattle so that they act as a herd, you will
discover that each group of cattle will have its own lead animal. The
other thing you will begin to notice is that nearly always, the same
group of animals will be bringing up the drag. This is because each
herd will establish its own “pecking” order.
You
have
spent
years
teaching
your
cattle to not be
a herd. If you are running a stocker operation, your calves have
probably come from several different herds and don’t
realize they are supposed to be a herd. This means you have to reverse
your actions and teach them to be a herd. Just
as
in
teaching
any
person
or
animal this
takes time and repetition. There will be signs showing if you are headed in the right direction or not with
every move. The biggest and most
immediate sign will be how your cattle act when they go
into a new pasture. Rather than fanning out in all directions to graze
they will, at least for a short amount of time,
remain together, grazing in the same direction. Each time
you move them correctly, they will remain together for a little longer
amount of time. Eventually they will stay together as a herd,
like in the above picture.
The
whole
secret
to
letting (not forcing) your
cattle act as a herd is to use cattle instinct to your advantage rather
than against you. If you get your motion going and keep it going from
the back, you are working against yourself and not keeping the cattle
as stress free as possible. Think about it for a second. Most
of the time you are moving your cattle to fresh feed, so why should
that be stressful to them? It should not, in
fact your cattle (if they are
being handled in a way they are
relaxed in) should want to move for you.
Keep in mind you will have to work at this and it will take several
moves before they start moving for you with little or no effort. To
keep them relaxed:
- Do
not
push
them
from
the
back
- Let
a
lead
establish
itself
(and
remember
a lead is 1 or 2 head in the
front, NOT 15 or 20 head abreast !!!)
- Keep
them
loose
–
They
will
want
to keep several feet to several yards
between them while moving
- Keep your motion going from the front to back.
- If
you
have
cattle
wandering
off
in
the wrong direction, try to approach
them from the front. They will go by you and try to catch up to the
other cattle (often at a trot or lope) without you having to “push”
them.
- Do
not
turn
the
cattle
from
back
to front by riding between them and the
fence. This only turns the back of the herd first, which slows the
forward motion of the herd and ususally begins other problems. Turn the
lead first and the rest of the herd will turn as they approach
you.
The first couple of times you may have to ride hard to get them lined out as it is not established in them to follow one another (as we have spent their entire lives keeping them from doing so). Once they begin figuring it out you may have to go at a trot just to keep up with them and get them turned into the right gate. In the following video I picked these steers up in a 640 acre stubble field. They had been there for approximately three weeks, and all but five head were together (and those five head were only about 200 yards away). I had driven the cattle out the first gate and across a field to the fence along a county road. This video will show me turn the cattle off the road and leave as 723 steers go through the gate with no one and noting to turn them. This was the second gate of a six gate, three mile move I made with these steers and no help.
These
methods
work
especially
well
with
pairs if you want to keep them paired
throughout the move. A few years ago I was working on a
large registered outfit. We were always moving pairs in groups of 350
or more. For some reason these guys were always wadding
them from the back. Moves which should have taken a few hours would
turn into a long day (or several days). One move was dreaded because
the cattle would ball up at the bottom of a mountain and turn the wrong
way and would not be paired. The funny thing
about this was although there was a 10-foot gate right in the road they
were trailed down, they wanted
to turn the cattle left to take them through a 30-foot gate followed by
another turn to the right. One day we gathered that pasture and I
talked one of the guys at the bottom of
the pasture into opening that narrow gate. I had a couple of interns
with me who allowed the cattle to string out, and I just stayed at the
front until about 50 yards from the gate, and let them go. The cattle
ran through the gate with calves at side, through three more gates and
into the trap where we wanted them. A few calves missed the gate,
bawled and their mothers came back for them. Needless to say the guy
who had argued about them not going through the gate thought it was
“lucky” and had nothing to do with letting them string out.
I want to mention
one other thing that causes a lot of stress here. It is something
nearly everyone does from time to time to make things easier, but that
causes a lot of stress. That is farmering down and leading your cattle
with a feed wagon. Cattle have their own pecking order. When you
stop in the middle of a pasture with a load of feed the same cattle are
there at the truck every day and the same cattle are always out on the
fringes. Alphas first on feed and the lower down the pecking order, the
longer they have to wait to get on feed. When you start moving cattle
with feed, they will line up in the same way. The cattle next to the
load will be trying to nibble as they go. The ones on the back are
waiting to get to feed. It would be like going to a restaurant and
fighting with a bunch of NFL linebackers to see who gets to eat first
(and adding to the frustration by having your prime rib moving away
from you just fast enough that you can’t get to it) After awhile you
lose interest and go to some fast food joint.